Palm Coast man convicted in pharmacy robbery

Public Affairs Director Klare Ly reported to Historic City News last night that, after a two-day trial that began Wednesday, a jury found 32-year-old Palm Coast man, Freddie Lee Giddens Jr., guilty of robbery with a firearm, kidnapping, trafficking in drugs, and possession of firearm by an in-state convicted felon.

The jury deliberated the evidence presented at trial for approximately an hour before reaching their verdict.

Giddens and his two co-defendants jumped over the service counter in an Ormond Beach pharmacy and demanded oxycodone and Roxycodone; then, they robbed the pharmacist and pharmacy tech at gunpoint, according to the State Attorney’s office.

To prevent their victims from escaping, Giddens and his two accomplices, forced the employees to the ground, guns pointed to the back of their necks; and then bound them with duct tape.

In addition to robbing the pharmacy of narcotics, they robbed the victims of their personal belongings. State Attorney R.J. Larizza said that the violent robbery left the pharmacy tech, Melissa Campbell, so fearful and traumatized that she did not return to work at the pharmacy.

“They took my driver’s license so they knew who I was,” Campbell testified at trial. “If I talked to police, I would be killed.”

Larizza said Giddens faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with a ten (10) year minimum mandatory on the robbery count and twenty-five (25) years minimum mandatory on the drug count due to the weight of the drugs. Sentencing will be set for a future date.

Giddens’ co-defendants, two Bunnell men, Kenneth L. Jenkins and Thavelian P. Watson, are scheduled to go to trial next month.